In recent years, development of clean energy is demanded for environmental issues such as depletion of energy resources, increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, and the like, and in particular, solar photovoltaic power generation employing solar cell modules are developed, put to practical use and advanced as a new energy resource.
As a solar cell, which configures a solar cell module, a bifacial electrode type solar cell, which has for example a monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon substrate having a photoreceiving surface with an impurity of a conductivity type opposite to that of the silicon substrate to provide a pn junction, and a back surface opposite to the photoreceiving surface, with the surfaces provided with electrodes, respectively, has conventionally been the mainstream. Furthermore, in recent years, a solar cell having a silicon substrate having a back surface with both an electrode for p type and an electrode for n type, i.e., a so called back electrode type solar cell, is also being developed.
For example, Patent Literature 1 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,786) discloses a solar cell module including an insulating base material, an electrically conductive wiring patterned on a surface of the insulating base material, and a back electrode type solar cell overlying the wiring and electrically connected thereto.